Brief Voluntary Alcohol and Drug Intervention for Middle School Youth

描述（由申请人提供）：中学时期是开始饮酒和吸食大麻的高峰期（约翰斯顿等人，2004年）。不幸的是，大多数使用药物和遇到问题的青年不太可能自愿利用正规的预防服务（D 'Amico，2005年;约翰逊等人，2001; Wu等人，2003年）。最近的一小部分研究表明，年轻人可能会受益于简短、自愿和容易获得的不太正式的项目（布朗，2001年;布朗等人，2005; D 'Amico等人，2004; D'Amico & Orlando，2005）。然而，很少有这种类型的干预方案已经制定（Little和Harris，2003年）。因此，虽然这种方法显示出希望，但青少年可能选择参加的干预计划的影响尚未得到广泛的研究。PI使用NIAAA开发工作资金（R21 AA 13284 -01）开发并测试了其中一项干预措施，即项目选择。项目选择是唯一的自愿干预，已被测试的中学生和我们的小型准实验研究已证明其有效性，在一所学校的设置（D 'Amico等人，2005; D'Amico & Orlando，2005）。该项目的选择干预解决了该领域的几个关键差距，包括开始了解这个年龄组的志愿服务利用率，并评估这种类型的计划如何影响全校范围内使用酒精和其他药物（AOD）。拟议的五年纵向研究的主要目的是在我们初步工作的基础上，对“选择”项目进行更严格的测试。这项研究将包括16所中学，位于种族多样化的南加州城市洛杉矶，圣莫尼卡和托兰斯。这些学校将被随机分配为干预组（n= 8）或对照组（n = 8）。我们将首先通过测试项目选择是否会影响参与干预的学生中的AOD相关结果来检查个人水平的影响。然后，我们将通过测试干预学校中所有学生的AOD率是否受到影响来研究学校层面的影响，无论参与与否。我们假设这些学校层面的影响将是由于学校环境的变化（例如，项目选择广告，学生之间的项目选择的讨论，社会规范的变化）。在预期这种学校层面的影响，本研究的第二个目标是更好地了解谁参加了项目的选择，以及如何这些参与者和学校环境的变化可能会影响那些谁不参加的态度和行为。这项研究采用了一种新的方法，AOD参与，因为它强调个人的自我改变的努力和自然恢复，并呼吁使用和不使用的青年。这项申请中提出的工作代表了这一研究方向的重要下一步：更严格地评估项目选择及其对全校范围和个人成果的潜在影响，以及更大的青年人口。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The middle school years are peak years for initiation of alcohol and marijuana (Johnston et al., 2004). Unfortunately, most youth who engage in substance use and experience problems are unlikely to voluntarily make use of formal prevention services (D'Amico, 2005; Johnson et al., 2001; Wu et al., 2003). A small body of recent research suggests that youth may benefit from less formal programs that are brief, voluntary, and easily accessible (Brown, 2001; Brown et al., 2005; D'Amico et al., 2004; D'Amico & Orlando, 2005). However, very few intervention programs of this type have been developed (Little and Harris, 2003). Thus, while this approach shows promise, the impact of intervention programs that younger teens may choose to attend has not been extensively examined. One such intervention, Project CHOICE, was developed and tested by the PI using NIAAA funding for developmental work (R21AA13284-01). Project CHOICE is the only voluntary intervention that has been tested for middle school youth and our small quasi-experimental study has demonstrated its efficacy in one school setting (D'Amico et al., 2005; D'Amico & Orlando, 2005). The Project CHOICE intervention addresses several critical gaps in the field, including beginning to understand voluntary service utilization among this age group and assessing how this type of program may impact school-wide use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD). The main objective of the proposed 5-year longitudinal study is to build on our initial work by conducting a more rigorous test of Project CHOICE. The study will include 16 middle schools, located in the ethnically diverse Southern California cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Torrance. These schools will be randomly assigned as intervention (n= 8) or control (n = 8). We will first examine individual-level effects by testing whether Project CHOICE affects AOD-related outcomes among students who participate in the intervention. We will then examine school-level effects by testing whether AOD rates among all students in the intervention schools are affected, regardless of participation. We assume that these school-level effects will be due to changes in the school environment (e.g., Project CHOICE advertising, discussion of Project CHOICE among students, changes in social norms). In anticipation of this school-level impact, a secondary objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of who participates in Project CHOICE, as well as how these participants and changes in the school environment may influence the attitudes and behaviors of those who do not participate. This research incorporates a novel methodology for AOD involvement, as it emphasizes personal self-change efforts and natural recovery and is appealing to both using and non-using youth. The work proposed in this application represents the important next step in this line of research: to more critically evaluate Project CHOICE and its potential impact on both school-wide and individual outcomes with a larger population of youth.